About Exchange Box Art

I have been given permission to paint some of Chorus's exchange boxes around Auckland. I'm not being paid for this, so I am looking for funding to help cover my time and materials.

Each will take me around an hour and a half to paint, so I'm looking for $35 per exchange box. If I get the initial $350 it will enable me to paint ten of them with my artworks - some based on popular culture, and others with my own creations. And if I receive more than $350, I'll be able to keep on going and paint more!

Update: I hit the target on day one! Awesome! Any further funds will help me paint even more of them - we have hundreds of these boxes around Auckland, so I'm not going to run out of canvases any time soon! (Also, I've discovered these things are called 'DSL cabinets' and not 'exchanges'. Oops.)

The 'Astronaut Sloth' on Mt Eden Road, which you can see in the photograph above, was the first box I painted. It was extremely well received online- it made it to the front page of Reddit for a weekend, and the photograph I posted received well over a million views.

The next one I am planning to do will be abstract, and then I will do one of my original characters, and perhaps a portrait or two, and maybe another meme. Or I might try and paint one so it completely blends into it's environment... I have plenty of ideas, I just need to buy some time to carry them out.

This is a small project, but it will be extremely accessible to the general public - this is one aspect of street art that sets it apart from any other art form. Now that Auckland has lost a number of the public art walls around the city, I feel that this is one way I can bring a bit of colour back into the streets, and help keep Auckland an interesting and fun place to live.

About the Artist

My name's Paul Walsh, and I work with pen, paint and spraypaint. I have been selling paintings for over twenty years, and my artwork has been used by bFM, Fat Freddy's Drop, Base FM, Very Tall Stories and god bows to math, amongst others.

I have a beautiful wife, a young son, an old dog and some fat fish, and we all live in Three Kings. I also work as a web designer and a DJ, and my favourite album is ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’.

You'll be able to see the finished products posted in here, as well as on my Facebook page and website.

Comments

The People Behind Exchange Box Art

Updates

thank you!!!

I've been completely blown away by the overwhelming response to this project. Thank you so much to all the pledgers for choosing to support me. Now.. I've got some work to do!

I'll be starting the painting phase within the next week, and I'll make sure that everyone who chose to have their name immortalised in paint knows exactly where their cabinet is located. I'll also be posting progress updates on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, and once the project is complete I'll collect all the images on my website.

Huge thanks also go to the crew at PledgeMe, and of course Chorus for letting me use their cabinets as a canvas - but most of all, those who have chosen to support the mission!

Comment on this update:

Whoa!!!

What an awesome response! Thanks to everyone that pledged - I just hit the target in less than eight hours!

Like I said, if I get more than the target amount, I'll be able to keep going and paint even more - there's hundreds of the things around Auckland, so there's no shortage of canvases for me! Cool.. I better start sketching up some more ideas..!